006 – The Kidnapped Kidnapper
—
[What are those scars above these sisters’ navels?]
Is that the famed uterus tattoo?
Damn, that’s hot~
[Comments]
– How is it harder to find a normal person in this thread, lmao ㅋㅌㅋㅋ
– Did OP take down a human trafficking ring and then strip all the unconscious female characters to see if they had scars on their bellies?
ㄴ (OP): ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I’m on playthrough 25 already. I’ve seen all the good s*x, so now I’m just looking for something different.
ㄴ You are truly unique, you madman ㅋㅋ
– Is that the quest you get after maxing out your relationship with the imperial family, where the slave traders never actually spawn?
ㄴ (OP): Yep, that’s them. Took me 120 hours to find their base of operations.
ㄴ These guys are real??
ㄴ (OP): Yup. You gotta search through every NPC’s store and private residence to find them.
—
As expected, one must work for things.
The extra effort of personally searching for temporary work paid off, for here it is, delivered personally!
‘A kidnapper getting kidnapped.’
It was possible to be kidnapped.
‘My luck is just dogshit…’
Actually, to call it a kidnapping is a stretch.
I was simply wandering around looking for work, and I followed a man into a restaurant when he said he needed someone to help out for the day.
Yes…
That was the reason I was now locked in this basement.
‘Ah…this isn’t South Korea…’
I had become accustomed to the peaceful life of South Korea, a nation of laws.
And due to my experience doing temporary work the day before, I didn’t realize the danger of following a stranger, and this is what happened.
‘Mom told me not to follow strangers… I’m getting kidnapped at this age…’
“Do you really not have parents?”
“No… I really don’t have anything…”
“…Honestly, just look at this scrawny thing.”
Whether it was fortune or misfortune.
The kidnapper, having realized immediately after abducting me that demanding ransom wasn’t an option.
Promptly lost interest in me and began searching for another victim.
“You, just stay huddled in that corner. You’ll be sold as a slave.”
“Yes…”
*Clang-*
Leaving me alone inside the dark room, the man locked the door and walked away just like that.
‘…How do I get out of here?’
Lost as to how I could escape this place,
I walked over to the crack of light under the door and peered outside.
—
TRYDE (49)
[Kidnapping] – Active
[Spy] – Please designate a target. (Max 1)
—
The kidnapper who’d left the room a moment ago could be seen talking to a companion in the central passage.
“Spy.”
At the sight of the kidnapper, I used the Spy magic…
‘…What is this?’
Roughly, I could see Tryde from a distant, third-person perspective through a status window.
‘Can I even touch this?’
In this situation that felt like a game, I moved my fingers to check the status window.
‘Why is this working? No, is it a good thing that it is?’
I could rotate the third-person view as I pleased, even zoom in and out.
“Is this the most it can zoom?”
Zooming in as much as possible, I could see the kidnapper from a distance of about 3 meters.
However,
“…Now what do I do with this?”
There was still nothing obvious I could do with it.
Just as I was racking my brain for a good idea, the kidnapper went upstairs.
Tryde disappeared from my direct line of sight,
—
TRYDE (49)
[Kidnapping] – Active
[Spy] – Target: Tryde
—
But looking through the Spy magic, it still seemed possible to use Kidnapping.
In that case…
“…”
Must I live?
I have struggled to survive until now…
“A sharp weapon… perhaps?”
The moment has arrived where I must kill to live.
…
*Grumble…*
My stomach lets out a loud rumble.
Having starved for hours, my belly aches something fierce, yet my mind has never been clearer.
“…Asleep, is he?”
It’s been roughly six hours since I was abducted.
Through my observation magic, I can glimpse Tride sleeping.
Just in case, I watch him quietly for another thirty minutes…
“He’s definitely asleep.”
I could now be certain that my kidnapper was deep in slumber.
“Haa… I can do it… I can do it…!”
Reassuring myself, I whisper the word as quietly as possible, empty-handed.
“Abduction.”
No sooner had the word left my lips.
The Tride’s figure appeared before my eyes.
*Keoheoeok!*
“…!”
My observation magic couldn’t pick up sounds, so I hadn’t known.
But the kidnapper’s snoring was so loud that if I wasted any more time, the guards outside would surely notice.
‘Quickly, quickly…!’
Immediately, I seize the iron bar I’d hidden behind me, and a rock about three times the size of my palm.
Aiming the sharp end of the iron bar at Tride’s neck…
“Hup!”
With every ounce of strength I possessed, I brought the rock down on the iron bar like a hammer blow.
*Thwack-*!
“Keuheup!”
As soon as the bar pierced his neck, Tride awoke in agony, attempting to rise.
“Keuk!”
The iron bar was embedded ever so slightly in the ground.
Unable to overcome that resistance, the kidnapper couldn’t get up.
“Heuek…!”
As if unable to speak with a hole punched through his throat.
Despite the pained sounds, he quickly assessed the situation and grabbed the iron bar embedded in his neck with both hands, attempting to pull it out.
*Thwack! Thwack!- Thwack!*
“Die..! Just..! Die…!”
Without granting him time to yank out that iron bar, I hoisted the rock above my head with both hands and brought it crashing down on Tryde’s face, again and again.
*Thwack-* *Cr-ack!* *Cr-ack-*!
Blood spattered every which way, and with a gruesome sound of bone splintering, the man’s body began to slump, limp.
“Haa… Haa…”
Breathing heavily, I scarcely had time to register the terror of my first killing.
“…”
I glanced past the doorway at the kidnapper’s companion, who was standing guard.
“…That one’s yours, too.”
Judging by how soundly he was dozing, the man hadn’t noticed the considerable noise from inside the room.
—
Bayden (45)
[Kidnap] – Active
[Scouting] – Tryde
—
“Scouting.”
*I have to do it now.*
Seeing the state of the guard, I resolved to deal with him before he woke.
“Hooo…”
—
Bayden (45)
[Kidnap] – Active
[Scouting] – Bayden
—
“Kidnap.”
Once again employing the magic, I kidnapped the kidnapper and brought him here.
Then, I drew the enormous blade from Tryde’s corpse.
*What a heavy thing this sword is.*
I could lift it with both hands, but only for a moment before the considerable weight took hold.
“Hmph!”
Putting all my strength into it, I plunged the blade.
*Thunk-*
I added a new throat-hole to the man’s neck.
“Guh!”
This time, Bayden woke up, gasping in agony, before he could utter anything.
“You too! Die!”
I smashed his face with the same rock I had used on Tryde.
“Haa… Haa…”
My heart hammered, a frantic drumbeat.
I’d checked repeatedly, and only Tryde and Bayden ever traveled this route, which solidified my certainty.
The kidnappers operated as a duo.
Therefore, with these two eliminated, it was certain now that there was no one left to dispatch.
“Haa… haa…”
Gasping, he settled down for a moment, taking a reprieve.
“Whoaaa… this, wow…”
He’d expected some sort of horror to well up from having taken lives.
But perhaps due to the adrenaline flooding his system, his body trembled, a tautness constricting him head to toe.
“Huuhhh… I’m… the best.”
As the certainty solidified that no one would ever harm him again,
The tension gradually bled away, a sensation of strength draining from his limbs.
“I need to get out… need to get out…”
Yet, no matter how enervated he felt,
He couldn’t remain trapped forever in this blood-soaked room.
Thump! Thump!
Seizing the axe hanging from his belt, he began hacking at the firmly bolted door, his only passage to the outside.
‘Get out…! I’m! Free!!”
Thump-! Crack!
The door splintered, the hole widening gradually until it was large enough for a person to squeeze through. He crawled out of the room.
“I’m free!”
Just you wait, delicacies of the surface world!
“I’m hungry!”
He’d noted that the place was a jerky shop before being abducted, so
Surely, the moment he ascended from the basement, a feast of delicious food would await him.
*
It had already been eight hours.
Lying on the rooftop opposite the store Mihean had entered, he waited for him to emerge.
“Hnnng…”
He’d scouted the vicinity, just in case, but there was no back exit.
Mihean had entered the store eight hours ago, and hadn’t come out since.
“…Is that his home?”
Could that be his home, the reason he hadn’t left?
Sssshh…
He reached for his notebook, about to check Mihean’s registered address when…
“…!!”
He saw it.
Mihean… covered head to toe in blood, sauntering out of the store…
What’s more…
“…”
…popping jerky from a canister tucked under his arm and munching on it as he walked.
‘What…?’
He was momentarily stunned by the scene, an onset of cognitive dissonance.
The moment Mi-heon vanished from sight, I leaped from the rooftop and entered the shop he’d just walked out of.
“…A basement?”
Upon venturing deeper inside the shop, I found a trapdoor leading down.
Without hesitation, I descended into the basement…
‘..Blood scent.’
A thick, coppery scent hit me full force.
‘..The door’s broken.’
A splintered door, a heavy scent of blood…
And beyond the broken door, two corpses, throats pierced clean through.
“…Damn it.”
Should have handled it in the interview room.
I turned to leave the basement, intending to stop Mi-heon, but…
“…Hmm?”
Thinking I’d misseen, I walked directly to the corpse whose top was half-torn open.
Shkk…
Pulling the torn fabric further aside…
I saw a cruciform scar just above the navel.
“…”
Leighton Isolde knew the meaning of that mark.
Indeed…
That scar was deliberately etched into the bodies of fellow organization members to identify each other.
And the organization that used it was the most infamous human trafficking ring within the Magic Kingdom.
“Mi-heon…”
Leighton Isolde’s mind began to race.
The Mi-heon he’d thought of as ‘evil’ was actually punishing true ‘evil’?
“…How did he know they were hiding here?”
Furthermore.
Leighton’s estimation of Mi-heon began to rise.
He had just seen the man walk straight into the lair of a criminal group even the Imperial Family struggled to track down.